The New Benetton...

[Liz]

...looks just like the new Sauber --- and the new Prost.

Murray is going to go bonkers trying to sort those six cars out!

[Jay]

Really? I think the Benetton is a light enough colour of blue that it will be distinguishable from the other cars.
The design isn't that great, but it's a nice colour of blue so I don't mind it .

[Valve Bounce]

To be honest, Murray couldn't tell the difference between a Ferrari and a McLaren. The ca looks OK except for he slanted letters on the air intake which diminish in size and looks a bit weird.
As for he appearance of the F1 cars, If all the cars were painted the same colour, I wonder how many here could tell the difference. I for one can't, even if they were standing still. On the track, I reckon it would be impossible for anyone, even the team owners. Maybe the Ferrari with the curved front wing might be the exception.

[Airhead]

This is the best looking Bennetton in gaes, looks really horn!

Jay, the design isn't that great? What do you base this observation on?

[Diabando]

aaaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!

What is going on with F1 in respect to the colours?

How I miss the days of the rainbow Benetton, the scarlet Ferrari, the pitch black Sauber, the red and white McLaren, the sterling blue of Williams, the yellow Jordan...

What is wrong with these teams??? do they want to bore us all to death? make commentary as difficult as possible?

Dont give me the sponsorship argument - most sponsors want to be noticed, which is why in the past we had such spectacular colours to look at...wonderful designs...

F1 used to be the pinnacle of motorsport, the cream on top, the ELITE! It was the fastest, biggest, and most spectacular motorsport event to be held over numerous countries around the globe....and every year that seems to go by now, it just gets more and more bland.

They need a wake up call...NOW

[Sparky]

I totally agree VB! I've said that before, and apart from a couple of "Oh No, I'm a real F1 enthusiast - I can tell each car from its exhaust diameter" - types, I think we were all in agreement: The cars are virtually identical. It's down to the design perameters. Given an optimum goal, the chances are that all designers will come up with a similar product.

I don't know - I like the Benetton 'Mild Seven' decals. I think they accentuate the sharp angle of the airbox, and hint at the design philosophies underneath. Either that, or I'm talking utter buttox!

[Raceace]

I tend to disagree with Valve Bounce in that this new Benetton is quite distinctive - especially the front wing. I have personally never seen a front wing that drops a level, but I have not seen many of the new contenders. I agree with AMoffat, this is a great looking Benetton and I think the blue is a lot better than the Prost. I think this car has a lot of promise - if the new 111 degree V pays off then Benetton should do a lot better than they think - at least what Flav thinks anyway.

[Liz]

The picture I got (from RaceFax Online) is a much darker blue than the one posted here. And it doesn't have all the graffiti on it either which make it look, erm, just like all the other cars. If you painted the Jordan blue it'd look just like the Prost.

AND: The front wing on that thing looks like a snowplow.

[Jay]

Jay, the design isn't that great? What do you base this observation on?

I meant the paint scheme design. With the exception of a misplaced blob of dark blue around the cockpit, it is simply monochrome and monotone with some ads.

[JeremySmith]

I love this car......Fantastic, looks very fast to me

[Raceace]

The front wing may look bad but if it works then you can bet that every team will have it as quick as you can say snowplow

[downforce]

Easily the worst lookin machine so far....reminds me of a bad collage!!!

Yeah, what happened to the rainbow colours?

[Orange]

I'm no huge Benneton fan, and the paint job is either boringly horrendous or horrendously boring (still working on it!) but the car itself is one of the most interesting looking on the grid, and the engine, well...

[Dino IV]

Yeah it's monochrome ... so?
They could have copied the McLaren paintscheme by fading the blue to white decall-areas ... then everybody would argue that the car was too white (compare the Jaguar thread for instance). But there's a point about it though. The Bennetton company is a clothing moloch, Italian of all places, so so a bit more 'disegno' would have been almost obligatory with such a background. They don't care a lot about that in the English teambase obviously.

Its shape is absolutely fabulous considering the great shape they got into nose, sidepods and the ultra slim airbox (well that's about the whole car ain't it? ).

Two remarkable details: The darker blue section around the cockpit. It probably should be a graphical interaction wit the darker blue barge boards but it ain't anywhere near adding some harmony to the layout. Secondly, we can't tell from this picture, but there's something behind the bargeboard. We can spot here that the air intake in the sidepod is black at the bottom and the blue part next to it at the side of the monocoque is part of a kind of side-impact structure. That makes you wonder - since we haven't seen anything like that on the other cars - why they placed something like that over there. Is it because their sidepods are shorter that the rest? Haven't figured that out yet.

[Valve Bounce]

Dino, I don't know how you know all these details. I confess I am a lumox when looking at the present day F1 car, but obviously you know your stuff - you must have a computer like memory. I will refer all future enquiries re F1 cars to you.(Seriously, I mean this).
A slight disagreement with Diabando - You obviously have not seen the Bathurst race because it beats any F1 race in excitement, vision, action, you name it. It certainly is more spectacular than F1, especially when it rains. If you don't believe me, just ask my mate AMoffat.
In all seriousness, I do think that most of the F1 cars of today look fantastic.

[DNQ]

I wish the Benetton had had side airboxes - too much disruption to the airflow I suppose. That nose looks terrible!

[Dino IV]

Thanks for your kind words, Valve Bounce, but that's too much credit. I am just curious. Especially about the details. As you and others stated, the cars hardly differ, so it's a bit of a nerdy hobby of mine to spot the differences and to track down the arguments why a designer opted for certain solutions. The drivers racing the cars are just the top of the iceberg in F1 and the only part that's visually presented to us as 'spectacle'. The factories and people behind the cars are doing the best they can to get the most out of a certain format and that's a 24\7-process which is really interesting. To check out the race-by-race modifications, to see the flaws and limitations of the cars emerge during the season and the solutions the teams come up with. F1 is more of a car-game where the action happens inbetween GP's and that triggers my curiousity a lot more than the GP itself as the outcome tends to become quite predictable. Well more or less.

This Benetton thing behind the bargeboard could be fooling me because of the blue-black contrast but I just noticed it on this picture and it kinda puzzled me.

[Valve Bounce]

Hard to say - could be the difference in colour. More to the point, what the heck do the barge boards do and why are they allowed in the first place? That picture you posted is very intresting.
More to the point, when do you have time to watch the Cricket?

[Diabando]

Valve Bounce! (VB - Victoria Bitter? )

Bad news....I am an Aussie!

Worse news....I am a Holden fan

Even worse news....I still think F1 is better

Cheers!

[Valve Bounce]

Well Diabando, after watching, on TV, last years race at Mt Panorama I found it much more spectacular and exciting than F1. Sorry about Craig Lowdnes going to Ford and all that.

[Diabando]

VB!

I never said I didnt like Bathurst...my point being that Bathurst is a once-a-year race, held in one country only. On its own, it is indeed spectacular and exciting, as any true Aussie race fan will agree.

F1 on the other hand, is held worldwide, every second weekend (or so), and is a "championship".

You just cant compare the two.

As for Craig Lowndes, good riddance!! He is using the SATCC as a stepping stone to bigger and better things...I would rather support a driver in the V8 supercars who is committed to the series (Larry Perkins for instance )

And...my apologies to everyone else for getting "off the topic"

Cheers!

[Tristan]

Hmmm... everyone's seem to have noticed the front wing, but is it me or does the back one look weird too?? Sure it doesn't have all it's availible elements in, but still it looks like an afterthought. This car is either going to be very very fast or very very slow. Or somewhere in the mid grid. (what??)

I'm sorry, that's arguably the worst post I've EVER made on this forum!! Apologies! But I know what I mean....

[Dino IV]

Valve Bounce > Instead of 'the Cricket' I prefer Bathurst too

Tristan > Good call though. The rear-wing seems to have only 2 elements on top, where 3 are allowed. The bottom element of the wing is limited to 1 this season, so that seems alright. It's also worth noticing the way the wing is attached. It seems to rest on a carbonfibre strut which is attached as forward as possible instead of resting it on or just in front of the diff\gearbox bellhousing. The Ferrari solution looks very similar to this one.

[Airhead]

VB,

Can you believe it? A female that supports Perkins. That's my sorta girl, obviously not very particular about the company she keeps. Or fussy in her choice of men.

For the rest of you, sorry to highjack the thread.

[Minardi fan]

It's distinctly semi-bad. I like the blues, but the writing is a MESS.